A frustrating day on Saturday when the first two fillies we backed simply couldn’t handle the fast ground and then, there was no doubt, that given any luck in running Sea Force would have landed the Thirsk Hunt Cup instead of finishing third without having come off the bridle.
Needle Match from stall 1 went far too quickly in the first 4F of the Guineas and our 100/1 punt never had any chance of being landed. It summed up the day when we missed the yards only winner on the day Yabher who was hugely impressive at Goodwood.
That’s racing though and we move onto Newmarket on Sunday where the ground should be eased by overnight rain.
Sea Force on his first run at Musselburgh was one of two horses of the limited number bets we have had so far this season to have run inexplicably badly.
The other Dramatic Star was the 2nd leg of what would have been a 230/1 AW Championship Double with Wiltshire who landed the first leg at 20/1. In reality he never gave us a moment of hope that the double would be landed.
However stable confidence appears to remain high that the 5yo can win a decent handicap prize this season and he has to be given one final chance in the 14f handicap at Newmarket on Sunday.
We backed him at 10/1 Ante Post at Newcastle on Good Friday and he was sent off at 11/4. Held up last off a strong gallop he appeared to lose interest and could never get involved in the race. It is no surprise that cheekpieces are on for the first time and he has again been well supported into 5/1 from 8/1.
The Newcastle race had been months in planning and with his rating dropped another 1lb to 92 it would be folly to allow him to run without backing him to take advantage of an extremely attractive handicap mark.
This is definitely last chance saloon- If he fails to perform again with conditions in his favour he would not be trusted again as a betting opportunity.
Recommended Bet Newmarket2.55 Sunday 1pt EW Dramatic Star 5/1 or bigger
In the Pretty Polly stakes that opens the card at 1.45, the highly touted Lope De Vega filly Lilt makes her first appearance, after winning on debut as a 2yo at Doncaster, she went into a lot of notebooks as a horse to follow this season.
She is a half sister to the Kingman colt Kilt who is now running around minor NH tracks in Ireland after becoming very disappointing as a 3yo.
Hopefully Lilt has more longevity and although this looks a big step in class she can get some black type in what is a weak Pretty Polly and then enjoy a successful 3yo career.
No Bet Recommended.
The final runner on Sunday is Poetry of Time who tries to break his maiden tag at the 5th time of asking in the 7f novice stakes at 3.10 . His rating of 78 sets a fair standard but there are 5 very well bred unraced rivals in the field of 9 all sent out from top yards.
Salisbury meetings in May are often targeted by Haggas to get a win from a Novice or Maiden and since 2021, 6 of the 7 horses sent to the track, from Somerville Lodge have been successful and gained their first win. It is a statistic that is too big too ignore. One of the debutants is the Ralph Beckett trained Seven Sisters who must be one of the best bred 3yo fillies in training which makes it straight forward to stick to our No Bet in novices and fillies races.
Chrysalis Consortium 
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